Zanten, Jacobus van (d. ca. 1740)

Jacobus van Zanten (Santen) (d. ca. 1740), a physician at Haarlem, Holland, and in 1683-ca. 1730 an elder of the Den Blok (Flemish) Mennonite congregation, was a conservative Mennonite who stressed the confessions of faith. He was a friend of Herman Schijn. Besides some medical works van Zanten published a book on Socrates (1710); translations from English: John Milton, Paradise Lost under the title Paradys Verlooren (Haarlem, 1728), and John Gale Aanmerkingen op den Kinderdoop (Leiden, 1741); a theological study on the Apostles' Creed, entitled De Historie van het Symbolum oft Geloofsformulier der Apostelen (Haarlem, 1707, repr. Utrecht, 1711); and Oorzaken van't Verval der Christelyke Godvruchtigheid (Haarlem, 1717). Being unmarried he willed a considerable part of his property to the Haarlem congregation, which is still administered as the Jacobus-van-Zanten-fonds.